Giuseppe Penone – In The Hidden Life Within

Art & Design

Giuseppe Penone started working professionally in 1968 in the Garessio forest, near where he was born. Penone’s work is concerned with establishing a contact between man and nature. He is still very active and produces lots of original works every year.

In his recent show at the Art Gallery of Ontario, In The Hidden Life Within, Penone carves out a young tree with an older tree to reveal its past, showing us what once grew inside so that it may now “live in the present.” Inspired by the quiet slowness of growth in the natural world, the artist asks us to take a moment to stop and think about the concept of time and how there’s a common vital force in all living things.